Coimbatore: The city corporation is planning to set up a 50 metric tonne biogas plant, that will generate electricity using food waste collected from hotels and restaurants.

The huge plant will be set up near the crematorium at Chokkam Pudur or the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation power station at Kavundampalayam, sources said.

“Apart from the five bio-methanisation plants that will be set up at a cost of Rs 15cr, we will also set up this plant exclusively for food waste from hotels and restaurants. As per the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, all the commercial establishments should dispose bio-degradable waste on their own. This will give hotels and restaurants an opportunity to dispose their waste,” said Saravana Kumar, who takes care of the solid waste management of the civic body.

The corporation has began a feasibility study for the project, Kumar said. “We will undertake a detailed study and find a suitable technology. Also, we will ensure that the company that gets the project, will not only dispose the waste, but will also be in charge of waste collection. This is mainly to avoid complaints that the civic body is not segregating waste before handing it over to them. They will collect the waste, operate the plant, dispose it and generate power from it,” he said.

The civic body wants to route the power generated to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board grid to save on the power bill.

Corporation commissioner K Vijayakarthikeyan is expected to call for expression of interest for the project soon. The shortlisted company will be asked to submit a project report. “We will complete the process by the end of this year,” said a corporation engineer.